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you just met. Hell,
you don’t know me from Adam. Look, why don’t I put you up in a hotel instead.
How does that sound?”
    She frowned. Figgy. She didn’t know who Adam was or why he
thought she was acquainted with the man, but it was obvious Derek thought she
was nervous about staying with him. He couldn’t be more wrong. He’d risked his
life to protect her, so she knew she’d be safe with him. And spending the night
in a warm bed was way better than sleeping on the ground in the forest.
    “Actually, I’d be more uncomfortable staying in a strange
place where I didn’t know anyone,” she said. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d very much
like to stay at your place.”
    She hoped he would be okay with that because she didn’t want
to stay in a hotel. According to The Polar Evening News , those places
were absolutely teeming with bed bugs. If there was one thing she was terrified
of, it was bed bugs. She’d actually never seen a bed bug of course—or any bug
for that matter since there weren’t any up in the frozen north—but the thought
of seeing one of the wiggling things the news anchor had described was enough
to make her shiver.
    To her relief, he smiled. “I don’t mind at all. Come on, we
can catch the subway down the street.”
    Sosie had heard of a subway, but the news stories hadn’t
prepared her for how big—and loud—they were. As she waited for Derek to buy her
a ticket from one of the dispensing machines along the wall, she had to resist
the urge to cover her ears. She didn’t know how he could stand the noise, but
apparently it didn’t bother him because he paid no attention to the rumbling
sound as they descended a set of stairs to the building’s lower level.
    There seemed to be as many people waiting for the subway as
there had been up on the street, and Sosie tried hard not to stare at them too
much while she stood there with Derek. She didn’t want to let on that she was a
visitor to their city. Although from the way the people stared back, she began
to think they might have caught on anyway.
    To her surprise, almost everyone in the waiting area got on
the same subway she and Derek did. She automatically looked around for a seat,
but they were all taken. She was about to ask Derek if they were going to have
to get off and wait for another subway when the thing suddenly sped forward.
She stumbled and would have fallen if a strong arm hadn’t wrapped around her
waist. Startled, she looked up to find Derek gazing down at her.
    “You okay?” he asked.
    Sosie opened her mouth to tell him she was, but all that
came out was a gasp. She’d already come to the conclusion he was well built
from how broad his shoulders were underneath the leather jacket, but she hadn’t
known how hard his body was beneath all those clothes. Snickerdoodle, the man
was as solid as a chimney.
    She blushed when she realized he was still waiting for an
answer. “I-I’m fine. We took off kind of fast.”
    He chuckled, but didn’t take his arm from around her waist. “You’ve
never been on a subway before, have you?”
    She shook her head. “We don’t have subways where I come
from.”
    Actually, they didn’t have any form of public transportation
in the North Pole, other than the transport sleds, of course. But they were
only for running down to the land of the big people. Snow City was so small
that everyone simply walked from place to place.
    With Derek’s arm around her, Sosie didn’t notice how loud
the subway was or how many people were crammed inside the small compartment
with them. All she could focus on was him. While she tried not to be obvious,
she couldn’t help gazing up at him from beneath her lashes whenever he wasn’t
looking. She hadn’t noticed before, but up close she saw his brown eyes had
little flecks of gold in them that seemed to shimmer when they caught the
light. He had a trace of scruff on his chiseled jaw, too. It was a shade
lighter than his dark, silky hair, and she had